A programming interview can be intimidating no matter who you are or how many times you’ve done it before. Do you have enough knowledge to pass? Will your solutions be sufficient? What happens if you choke?
If you’re nervous, that’s fine. In fact, I’d see it as a positive sign: it shows you’re serious about succeeding! In reality, interview preparation is more about boosting your confidence than it is about extending your knowledge, though both are vital. Here are five things you can do to ensure that you’re well-prepared for the big day.
Read on to know the tips for overcoming interview anxiety and interviewing via the internet for programming interview advice.
1. Study for a Few Minutes Every Day
Between now until the interview, the best approach to prepare is to do a small bit of preparation work every single day. Start even if you don’t have an interview scheduled yet. Every little bit makes a difference.
Daily practice questions are a fantastic place to start, but don’t forget about other things like researching firms and technologies and fine-tuning what you’ll say about yourself in terms of qualifications and expertise. All of this will be discussed in greater detail later in this post. programming-interview-practice
With your daily practice, it’s critical that you set realistic but demanding goals. Don’t make the mistake of doing too little each day; it’s important to take it seriously. — but don’t cram too much into your schedule. That is how mental exhaustion develops.
2. Know what the interviewer is looking for
As soon as you have an interview scheduled, you should do as much research as possible about the company. When it comes to effective preparation, context is everything. After all, your ultimate goal is to meet the requirements of your potential employer.
Begin with the job description. Is it for a job in MMORPG game development? The tools and frameworks used in that field should be known to you. The same is true for developing mobile apps, business suites, web frontends, server backends, and whatever else you can think of.
If the information is available, you should also look into the company’s specialized technology. You don’t have to be an expert (unless the job description specifies otherwise), but you should know enough to have a reasonable discussion about it.
3. Concentrate on Strengthening Weaknesses
You’ll need to be familiar with a variety of topics, including data structures, algorithms, industry standard libraries and frameworks, and more. Nobody expects you to be an expert in everything, but you should be confident in your abilities.
The following are examples of issues that are frequently discussed:
- Certain programming languages’ nuances, particularly dynamic programming languages, which have recently gained popularity. It’s crucial to understand the fundamentals of OOP.
- Arrays, Linked Lists, Stacks, Queues, Heaps, Hash Tables, and Binary Trees are all examples of data structures (including Binary Search Trees and Self-Balancing Binary Trees).
- Sorting, Searching, Recursion, Graph Theory, and Traversals, Divide and Conquer, Greedy Algorithms, Big O Notation (time and space complexity).
- Singletons, Factories, Composition, Multiple Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Decorators are examples of patterns.
- And, of course, field-specific topics based on the job you’re looking for (for example, SQL queries for database programmers or UDP/TCP for network programmers).
4. Mock interviews are invaluable
It’s one thing to learn on your PC while typing code into your preferred IDE. Without Google as a backup, writing out your code on paper with a pencil or on a whiteboard with a marker is a whole different experience.
Giving the concept of writing better code a whole new meaning.
Don’t undervalue the value of practice interviews. Set them up as precisely as possible to the interview environment: no computers, phones, or tablets, just a sheet of paper, a pencil, and a timer for 30–60 minutes. Take a look online to get prepared better for the interview. For many programming languages, you can learn the questions before the interview. For example, you can learn to react js interview questions and ace your interview.
By doing so, the actual interview won’t feel as strange, and you’ll be able to focus completely on the questions in front of you.
Mock interviews are even available for free on the internet. Of course, they aren’t flawless, but they can be really beneficial if you require face-to-face practice.
5. Exercise, meditate, and unwind
This last piece of advice isn’t specific to programming or even interviews, but it might be the most useful. A calm and robust mind is optimal for cultivating confidence, whereas a frantic or insecure mind can be a major roadblock.
Take care of your physical health first and foremost. I’m referring to both your nutrition and your physical activity. I understand how difficult it is to find time to go to the gym or even run a lap around the neighborhood, but exercise is proven to be beneficial to your mental health.
If you don’t have time to go to the gym, you may always find other ways to exercise. Stay at home and watch fitness channels on YouTube, or go to work and workout at your desk.
Then there’s the amazing 3-minute posture-correcting exercise. That can do wonders for your self-esteem.
That said, you may discover that programming isn’t for you, which is just great. There are a plethora of other tech-related occupations you can pursue with great success. What is the most difficult aspect of interviewing for a programming position? Is there anything that makes you feel uneasy or afraid? Do you have any other suggestions to share? Let us know in the comments section below!
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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